Systematic Functional Interrogation of Genes in GWAS Loci Identified ATF1 as a Key Driver in Colorectal Cancer Modulated by a Promoter-Enhancer Interaction.

Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have identified approximately 100 colorectal cancer (CRC) risk loci. However, the causal genes in these loci have not been systematically interrogated. We conducted a high-throughput RNA-interference functional screen to identify the genes essential for proliferation in the CRC risk loci of Asian populations. We found that ATF1, located in the 12q13.12 region, functions as an oncogene that facilitates cell proliferation; ATF1 has the most significant effect of the identified genes and promotes CRC xenograft growth by affecting cell apoptosis. Next, by integrating a fine-mapping analysis, a two-stage affected-control study consisting of 6,213 affected individuals and 10,388 controls, and multipronged experiments, we elucidated that two risk variants, dbSNP: rs61926301 and dbSNP: rs7959129, that located in the ATF1 promoter and first intron, respectively, facilitate a promoter-enhancer interaction, mediated by the synergy of SP1 and GATA3, to upregulate ATF1 expression, thus synergistically predisposing to CRC risk (OR = 1.77, 95% CI = 1.42-2.21, p = 3.16 × 10-7; Pmultiplicative-interaction = 1.20 × 10-22; Padditive-interaction = 6.50 × 10-3). Finally, we performed RNA-seq and ChIP-seq assays in CRC cells treated with ATF1 overexpression in order to dissect the target programs of ATF1. Results showed that ATF1 activates a subset of genes, including BRAF, NRAS, MYC, BIRC2, DAAM1, MAML2, STAT1, ID1, and NKD2, related to apoptosis, Wnt, TGF-ß, and MAPK pathways, and these effects could cooperatively increase the risk of CRC. These findings reveal the clinical potential of ATF1 in CRC development and illuminate a promoter-enhancer interaction module between the ATF1 regulatory elements dbSNP: rs61926301 and dbSNP: rs7959129, and they bring us closer to understanding the molecular drivers of cancer.

Pancan-meQTL: a database to systematically evaluate the effects of genetic variants on methylation in human cancer.

DNA methylation is an important epigenetic mechanism for regulating gene expression. Aberrant DNA methylation has been observed in various human diseases, including cancer. Single-nucleotide polymorphisms can contribute to tumor initiation, progression and prognosis by influencing DNA methylation, and DNA methylation quantitative trait loci (meQTL) have been identified in physiological and pathological contexts. However, no database has been developed to systematically analyze meQTLs across multiple cancer types. Here, we present Pancan-meQTL, a database to comprehensively provide meQTLs across 23 cancer types from The Cancer Genome Atlas by integrating genome-wide genotype and DNA methylation data. In total, we identified 8 028 964 cis-meQTLs and 965 050 trans-meQTLs. Among these, 23 432 meQTLs are associated with patient overall survival times. Furthermore, we identified 2 214 458 meQTLs that overlap with known loci identified through genome-wide association studies. Pancan-meQTL provides a user-friendly web interface (http://bioinfo.life.hust.edu.cn/Pancan-meQTL/) that is convenient for browsing, searching and downloading data of interest. This database is a valuable resource for investigating the roles of genetics and epigenetics in cancer.

AWESOME: a database of SNPs that affect protein post-translational modifications.

Protein post-translational modifications (PTMs), including phosphorylation, ubiquitination, methylation, acetylation, glycosylation et al, are very important biological processes. PTM changes in some critical genes, which may be induced by base-pair substitution, are shown to affect the risk of diseases. Recently, large-scale exome-wide association studies found that missense single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) play an important role in the susceptibility for complex diseases or traits. One of the functional mechanisms of missense SNPs is that they may affect PTMs and leads to a protein dysfunction and its downstream signaling pathway disorder. Here, we constructed a database named AWESOME (A Website Exhibits SNP On Modification Event, http://www.awesome-hust.com), which is an interactive web-based analysis tool that systematically evaluates the role of SNPs on nearly all kinds of PTMs based on 20 available tools. We also provided a well-designed scoring system to compare the performance of different PTM prediction tools and help users to get a better interpretation of results. Users can search SNPs, genes or position of interest, filter with specific modifications or prediction methods, to get a comprehensive PTM change induced by SNPs. In summary, our database provides a convenient way to detect PTM-related SNPs, which may potentially be pathogenic factors or therapeutic targets.

CancerSplicingQTL: a database for genome-wide identification of splicing QTLs in human cancer.

Alternative splicing (AS) is a widespread process that increases structural transcript variation and proteome diversity. Aberrant splicing patterns are frequently observed in cancer initiation, progress, prognosis and therapy. Increasing evidence has demonstrated that AS events could undergo modulation by genetic variants. The identification of splicing quantitative trait loci (sQTLs), genetic variants that affect AS events, might represent an important step toward fully understanding the contribution of genetic variants in disease development. However, no database has yet been developed to systematically analyze sQTLs across multiple cancer types. Using genotype data from The Cancer Genome Atlas and corresponding AS values calculated by TCGASpliceSeq, we developed a computational pipeline to identify sQTLs from 9 026 tumor samples in 33 cancer types. We totally identified 4 599 598 sQTLs across all cancer types. We further performed survival analyses and identified 17 072 sQTLs associated with patient overall survival times. Furthermore, using genome-wide association study (GWAS) catalog data, we identified 1 180 132 sQTLs overlapping with known GWAS linkage disequilibrium regions. Finally, we constructed a user-friendly database, CancerSplicingQTL (http://www.cancersplicingqtl-hust.com/) for users to conveniently browse, search and download data of interest. This database provides an informative sQTL resource for further characterizing the potential functional roles of SNPs that control transcript isoforms in human cancer.

Genetic variants in m6A modification genes are associated with esophageal squamous-cell carcinoma in the Chinese population.

N 6-methyladenosine (m6A) is an abundant modification in RNAs that affects RNA metabolism, and it is reported to be closely related to cancer occurrence and metastasis. In this study, we focused on evaluating the associations between genetic variants in m6A modification genes and the risk of esophageal squamous-cell carcinoma (ESCC). By integrating data of our previous genome-wide association studies and the predictions of several annotation tools, we identified a single nucleotide polymorphism, rs2416282 in the promoter of YTHDC2, that was significantly associated with the susceptibility of ESCC (odds ratio = 0.84, 95% CI: 0.77-0.92, P = 2.81 × 10-4). Through further functional experiments in vitro, we demonstrated that rs2416282 regulated YTHDC2 expression. Knockdown of YTHDC2 substantially promoted the proliferation rate of ESCC cells by affecting several cancer-related signaling pathways. Our results suggested that rs2416282 contributed to ESCC risk by regulating YTHDC2 expression. This study provided us a valuable insight into the roles of genetic variants in m6A modification genes for ESCC susceptibility and may contribute to the prevention of this disease in the future.

Evaluation of polymorphisms in microRNA-binding sites and pancreatic cancer risk in Chinese population.

As promising biomarkers and therapy targets, microRNAs (miRNAs) are involved in various physiological and tumorigenic processes. Genetic variants in miRNA-binding sites can lead to dysfunction of miRNAs and contribute to disease. However, systematic investigation of the miRNA-related single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) for pancreatic cancer (PC) risk remains elusive. We performed integrative bioinformatics analyses to select 31 SNPs located in miRNA-target binding sites using the miRNASNP v2.0, a solid database providing miRNA-related SNPs for genetic research, and investigated their associations with risk of PC in two large case-control studies totally including 1847 cases and 5713 controls. We observed that the SNP rs3802266 is significantly associated with increased risk of PC (odds ratio (OR) = 1.21, 95% confidence intervals (CI) = 1.11-1.31, P = 1.29E-05). Following luciferase reporter gene assays show that rs3802266-G creates a stronger binding site for miR-181a-2-3p in 3' untranslated region (3'UTR) of the gene ZHX2. Expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) analysis suggests that ZHX2 expression is lower in individuals carrying rs3802266-G with increased PC risk. In conclusion, our findings highlight the involvement of miRNA-binding SNPs in PC susceptibility and provide new clues for PC carcinogenesis.

ANKLE1 N6 -Methyladenosine-related variant is associated with colorectal cancer risk by maintaining the genomic stability.

The N6 -Methyladenosine (m6 A) modification plays an important role in many biological processes, especially tumor development. However, little is still known about how it affects colorectal cancer (CRC) carcinogenesis. Here, we first systematically investigate the association of variants related to m6 A modification with the CRC risk in 1,062 CRC cases and 2,184 controls by using our exome-wide association data and followed by two replication sets including 7,341 CRC cases and 7,902 controls. The variant rs8100241 located in ANKLE1 was significantly associated with CRC risk (odds ratio = 0.88, 95% confidence interval = 0.84-0.92, p = 4.85 × 10-8 ) in 8,403 cases and 10,086 controls. This variant was previously identified to be associated with the susceptibility of breast cancer with BRCA1 mutation triple negative breast cancer. Further functional analysis indicated that overexpression of the rs8100241[A] allele significantly increased the ANKLE1 m6 A level and facilitated the ANKLE1 protein expression compared to that of rs8100241[G] allele. We further found the ANKLE1 m6 A modification was catalyzed by the "writer" complex (METTL3, METTL14, or WTAP) and recognized by the "reader" YTHDF1. Mechanistically, we found that the ANKLE1 functions as a potential tumor suppressor that inhibits cell proliferation and facilitates the genomic stability. An elevated frequency of micronucleated cells, increased cell proliferation, and colony formation ability were observed when ANKLE1 knockdown. Our study illustrated that the germline missense variant can increase CRC risk by influencing ANKLE1 m6 A level, highlighting a clinical potential of variants-associated m6 A modification as a risk marker for CRC prevention.

A functional variant in TNXB promoter associates with the risk of esophageal squamous-cell carcinoma.

Our previous study identified a tag single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs204900 in TNXB associated with risk of esophageal squamous-cell carcinoma (ESCC) in the Chinese population. However, the functional role of TNXB and causal variants had not been interrogated in that study. In the present study, we explored the effects of TNXB expression in the development of ESCC and searched for functional variants in this gene. We found TNXB was downregulated in ESCC tumors. Using small interfering RNAs and CRISPR-Cas9 methods, we identified that both knockdown and knockout of TNXB significantly promoted ESCC cell growth in vitro, suggesting a tumor suppressor role of this gene in ESCC. Through further fine-mapping analysis, we identified that a noncoding variant in the promoter of TNXB, rs411337, predisposed to ESCC risk (odds ratio = 1.36, 95% confidence interval: 1.22-1.51, P = 9.10 × 10-9 ). These findings revealed the functional mechanism of TNXB in the development of ESCC and may contribute to the prevention and treatment of this disease in the future.

PancanQTL: systematic identification of cis-eQTLs and trans-eQTLs in 33 cancer types.

Expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL) analysis, which links variations in gene expression to genotypes, is essential to understanding gene regulation and to interpreting disease-associated loci. Currently identified eQTLs are mainly in samples of blood and other normal tissues. However, no database comprehensively provides eQTLs in large number of cancer samples. Using the genotype and expression data of 9196 tumor samples in 33 cancer types from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), we identified 5 606 570 eQTL-gene pairs in the cis-eQTL analysis and 231 210 eQTL-gene pairs in the trans-eQTL analysis. We further performed survival analysis and identified 22 212 eQTLs associated with patient overall survival. Furthermore, we linked the eQTLs to genome-wide association studies (GWAS) data and identified 337 131 eQTLs that overlap with existing GWAS loci. We developed PancanQTL, a user-friendly database (http://bioinfo.life.hust.edu.cn/PancanQTL/), to store cis-eQTLs, trans-eQTLs, survival-associated eQTLs and GWAS-related eQTLs to enable searching, browsing and downloading. PancanQTL could help the research community understand the effects of inherited variants in tumorigenesis and development.

A functional variant in the boundary of a topological association domain is associated with pancreatic cancer risk.

As the proper binding of CCCTC-binding factor (CTCF) in the boundaries of topological association domains (TADs) was important for chromatin structures and gene regulation, we hypothesized that single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) affecting CTCF binding in TAD boundaries might contribute to pancreatic cancer (PC) susceptibility. We first genome widely screened out potential SNPs via bioinformatics analysis on Hi-C data, ChIP-seq data, and CTCF binding motif, then tested their associations with PC risk in a previous genome-wide association studies (GWASs) data set (981 cases and 1,991 controls), followed by another independent replication set (1,208 cases and 1,465 controls). Electrophoretic mobility shift assays (EMSAs), expression Quantitative Trait Loci (eQTL) analyses and cell proliferation experiments were performed to uncover the biological mechanisms. The positive SNP rs2001389 was found significantly associated with PC risk with odds ratio (OR) being 1.166 (95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.075-1.264, P = 2.143E-04) in the combined study. The allele G of rs2001389 weakened the binding activity with CTCF, and it was related to the lower expression of a putative antioncogene MFSD13A whose knockdown promoted proliferation of PC cells. By integrating analysis on multiomics data, association studies and functional assays, we proposed that the common variant rs2001389 and the gene MFSD13A might be genetic modifiers of PC tumorigenesis.

Integrative analysis identifies genetic variant modulating MICA expression and altering susceptibility to persistent HBV infection.

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Genome-wide association studies have identified multiple genetic signals associated with the risk of persistent hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection and HBV-related hepatocellular carcinoma. However, the majority of the associated variants may only be markers of functional variants and the underlying biological mechanisms remain elusive. We hypothesized that the functional variants with modulating transcription factor (TF) binding affinity in genome-wide association studies-identified loci may influence the risk of persistent HBV infection in Chinese people. METHODS: A systematic bioinformatics approach was implemented to prioritize potential functional variants that may influence TF binding. A two-stage case-control study, including 1595 HBV-persistent carriers and 1590 subjects with HBV natural clearance, was conducted to examine the associations between candidate variants and susceptibility to persistent HBV infection. Biological assays were carried out to elucidate the underlying mechanism of the associated genetic variants. RESULTS: Twelve candidate variants were identified, and rs2523454 G > A increased the risk of persistent HBV infection (dominant model: ORcombined  = 1.37, 95% CI = 1.19-1.58, P = 1.610 × 10-5 ). Functional assays indicated that the rs2523454 A allele significantly decreased transcriptional activity compared to the G allele by influencing TF-binding affinity. In addition, expression quantitative trait loci analyses revealed that the A allele was associated with the reduced expression of MICA (P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that the germline G > A variation at rs2523454 may influence TF-DNA interaction, downregulate the expression of MICA and play an important role in the development of persistent HBV infection in the Chinese population.

Integrative functional genomics identifies regulatory genetic variant modulating RAB31 expression and altering susceptibility to breast cancer.

Despite the successes of genome-wide association study (GWAS) in identifying breast cancer (BC) risk-associated variants, only a small fraction of the heritability can be explained. The greatest challenge in the post-GWAS is to identify causal variants and underlying mechanisms responsible for BC susceptibility. In this study, we integrated functional genomic data from ENCODE ChIP-seq, ANNOVAR, and the TRANSFAC matrix to identify potentially regulatory variants with modulating FOXA1-binding affinity across the whole genome, and then conducted a two-stage case-control study including 2164 cases and 2382 controls to investigate the associations between candidate SNPs and BC susceptibility. We identified a BC susceptibility SNP, rs6506689 G>T, with an odds ratio (OR) of 1.23 (95% confidence interval = 1.07-1.40, P = 0.003) under a dominant model in the combined study. Biological assays indicated that the germline G>T variation at rs6506689 creates a FOXA1-binding site and up-regulates the expression of RAB31, thus playing an important role in the development of BC. Our results highlight the importance of regulatory genetic variants in the development of BC by influencing TF-DNA interaction and provide critical insights to pinpoint causal genetic variants.

KN-B removal from water by non-thermal plasma.

The degradation of Reactive Black 5 (KN-B) in water using double-dielectric barrier discharge (DDBD) was studied. Experimental results showed that the KN-B degradation rate increased as the initial pH decreased. Low concentrations of Fe(2+) enhanced the degradation, whereas high concentrations of Fe(2+) hindered the degradation. The results showed that DDBD did not noticeably reduce total organic carbon but did reduce the pH value and improve the biodegradability of the solution significantly. Furthermore, the UV-Vis spectra of the dye showed that the chromophore group was damaged and that the solution was decolorized after the 10-min degradation process.

Intermittent theta burst stimulation to the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex improves cognitive function in polydrug use disorder patients: a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Polydrug abuse is common among opioid users. Individuals who use both heroin and methamphetamine (MA) have been shown to experience a wide range of cognitive deficits. Previous research shows that repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) can change cerebral cortical excitability and regulate neurotransmitter concentration, which could improve cognitive function in drug addiction. However, the stimulation time, location, and possible mechanisms of rTMS are uncertain. Methods: 56 patients with polydrug use disorder were randomized to receive 20 sessions of 10 Hz rTMS (n = 19), iTBS (n = 19), or sham iTBS (n = 18) to the left DLPFC. All patients used MA and heroin concurrently. Cognitive function was assessed and several related proteins including EPI, GABA-Aα5, IL-10, etc. were quantified by ELISA before and after the treatment. Results: Baseline RBANS scores were lower than normal for age (77.25; IQR 71.5-85.5). After 20 treatment sessions, in the iTBS group, the RBANS score increased by 11.95 (95% CI 0.02-13.90, p = 0.05). In particular, there were improvements in memory and attention as well as social cognition. Following treatment, serum EPI and GABA-Aα5 were reduced and IL-10 was elevated. The improvement of immediate memory was negatively correlated with GABA-Aα5 (r = -0.646, p = 0.017), and attention was positively correlated with IL-10 (r = 0.610, p = 0.027). In the 10 Hz rTMS group, the improvement of the RBANS total score (80.21 ± 14.08 before vs.84.32 ± 13.80 after) and immediate memory (74.53 ± 16.65 before vs.77.53 ± 17.78 after) was statistically significant compared with the baseline (p < 0.05). However, compared with the iTBS group, the improvement was small and the difference was statistically significant. There was no statistically significant change in the sham group (78.00 ± 12.91 before vs.79.89 ± 10.92 after; p > 0.05). Conclusion: Intermittent theta burst stimulation to the left DLPFC may improve cognitive function in polydrug use disorder patients. Its efficacy appears to be better than that of 10 Hz rTMS. The improvement of cognitive function may be related to GABA-Aα5 and IL-10. Our findings preliminarily demonstrate the clinical value of iTBS to the DLPFC to augment neurocognitive recovery in polydrug use disorders.

The relationship between physical activity and depression among community-dwelling adults in Wuhan, China.

Background: While the association between physical activity (PA) and depression has been established, there is limited research on the effect of PA on the risk of depression among Chinese individuals. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the relationship between PA and depression among Chinese individuals. Methods: We used a stratified random sampling approach to recruit participants from five urban districts in Wuhan, China. A total of 5,583 permanent residents aged 18 years or older completed questionnaires, which included the International Physical Activity Questionnaire Short Form (IPAQ-SF) to measure PA, and the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) to evaluate depressive symptoms. To control for potential confounders, multiple logistic regression was employed to assess the association of PA with depression. Results: The depression group had significantly lower weekly PA levels, measured in metabolic equivalent of task-minutes per week (MET-min/w), compared to the non-depression group [1,770 (693-4,200) MET-min/w vs. 2,772 (1,324-4,893) MET-min/w, p < 0.001]. In the fully adjusted model, the moderate and high PA level groups had lower odds ratios (ORs) for depressive symptoms compared to the low PA level group [OR (95% confidence interval (CI)) = 0.670 (0.523-0.858), 0.618 (0.484-0.790), respectively]. Among males, moderate and high levels of PA were associated with lower risk of depression compared to low PA levels [OR (95% CI) = 0.417 (0.268-0.649), 0.381 (0.244-0.593), respectively]. However, this association was not observed in females [OR (95% CI) = 0.827 (0.610-1.121), 0.782 (0.579-1.056), respectively]. The study found a significant interaction between PA levels and gender in relation to depression (P for interaction = 0.019). Conclusion: The findings suggest a negative association between PA and risk of depressive symptoms, indicating that moderate to high levels of PA may serve as a protective factor against depressive symptoms.

Evaluation of the Relationship Between BDNF Val66Met Gene Polymorphism and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: A Meta-Analysis.

Background: Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common neurobehavioral disorder in childhood. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is widely distributed in the central nervous system and plays an important role in neural development. Despite several previous studies have examined the association between the Val66Met polymorphism BDNF and ADHD, the results are conflicting. Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the association between Val66Met polymorphism and ADHD in case-control and transmission disequilibrium test (TDT) studies using a meta-analysis. Methods: Keywords "rs6265" or "Val66Met" and "Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder" were used to search in the PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Wanfang, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure databases before April 2021. Genotype data were extracted to calculate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Results: Fifteen studies, comprising of 8,692 samples (containing 4,364 cases, 4,328 controls) and 1,578 families were included and results demonstrated that rs6265 was not associated with susceptibility to ADHD (OR = 0.95, 95% CI: 0.87-1.04, P = 0.291). Stratified analyses by study design, ethnicity, and sample size further supported that rs6265 was not associated with ADHD. Conclusion: The present study shows that the polymorphism of the BDNF Val66Met gene is not associated with susceptibility to ADHD.

Genetic Predisposition to Colon and Rectal Adenocarcinoma Is Mediated by a Super-enhancer Polymorphism Coactivating CD9 and PLEKHG6.

BACKGROUND: Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified dozens of loci associated with colon and rectal adenocarcinoma risk. As tissue-specific super-enhancers (SE) play important roles in tumorigenesis, we systematically investigate SEs and inner variants in established GWAS loci to decipher the underlying biological mechanisms. METHODS: Through a comprehensive bioinformatics analysis on multi-omics data, we screen potential single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) in cancer-specific SEs, and then subject them to a two-stage case-control study containing 4,929 cases and 7,083 controls from the Chinese population. A series of functional assays, including reporter gene assays, electrophoretic mobility shift assays (EMSA), CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing, chromosome conformation capture (3C) assays, and cell proliferation experiments, are performed to characterize the variant's molecular consequence and target genes. RESULTS: The SNP rs11064124 in 12p13.31 is found significantly associated with the risk of colon and rectal adenocarcinoma with an odds ratio (OR) of 0.87 [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.82-0.92, P = 8.67E-06]. The protective rs11064124-G weakens the binding affinity with vitamin D receptor (VDR) and increases the enhancer's activity and interactions with two target genes' promoters, thus coactivating the transcription of CD9 and PLEKHG6, which are both putative tumor suppressor genes for colon and rectal adenocarcinoma. CONCLUSIONS: Our integrative study highlights an SE polymorphism rs11064124 and two susceptibility genes CD9 and PLEKHG6 in 12p13.31 for colon and rectal adenocarcinoma. IMPACT: These findings suggest a novel insight for genetic pathogenesis of colon and rectal adenocarcinoma, involving transcriptional coactivation of diverse susceptibility genes via the SE element as a gene regulation hub.

ABTB2 Regulatory Variant as Predictor of Epirubicin-Based Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy in Luminal A Breast Cancer.

Background: Epirubicin combined with docetaxel is the cornerstone of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) for breast cancer. The efficacy of NAC for luminal A breast cancer patients is very limited, and single nucleotide polymorphism is one of the most important factors that influences the efficacy. Our study is aimed to explore genetic markers for the efficacy of epirubicin combined with docetaxel for NAC in patients with luminal A breast cancer. Methods: A total of 421 patients with two stages of luminal A breast cancer were enrolled in this study from 2 centers. Among them 231 patients were included in the discovery cohort and 190 patients are in the replication cohort. All patients received epirubicin 75 mg/m2 and docetaxel 75 mg/m2 on day 1, in a 21-day cycle, a cycle for 2-6 cycles. Before treatment, 2 ml of peripheral blood was collected from each patient to isolate genomic DNA. Fourteen functional variants potentially regulating epirubicin/docetaxel response genes were prioritized by CellMiner and bioinformatics approaches. Moreover, biological assays were performed to determine the effect of genetic variations on response to chemotherapy. Results: The patients carrying rs6484711 variant A allele suffered a poor response to epirubicin and docetaxel for NAC (OR = 0.37, 95% CI: 0.18-0.74, P = 0.005) in combined stage. Moreover, expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) analyses and luciferase reporter assays revealed that rs6484711 A allele significantly increased the expression of ABTB2. Subsequent biological assays illustrated that upregulation of ABTB2 significantly reduced the apoptosis rate of breast cancer cells and enhanced the chemo-resistance to epirubicin. Conclusions: Our study demonstrated rs6484711 polymorphism regulating ABTB2 expression might predict efficacy to epirubicin based NAC in luminal A breast cancer patients. These results provided valuable information about potential role of genetic variations in individualized chemotherapy.

A genetic variant in PIK3R1 is associated with pancreatic cancer survival in the Chinese population.

Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest malignancies with few early detection tests or effective therapies. PI3K-AKT signaling is recognized to modulate cancer progression. We previously identified that a genetic variant in PKN1 increased pancreatic cancer risk through the PKN1/FAK/PI3K/AKT pathway. In order to investigate the associations between genetic variations in that pathway and pancreatic cancer prognosis, we conducted a two-stage survival analysis in a total of 547 Chinese pancreatic cancer patients. Consequently, a variant, rs13167294 A>C in PIK3R1, was significantly associated with poor survival in both stages and with hazard ratio being 1.32 (95% CI = 1.13-1.56, P = 0.0007) in the combined analysis. Function annotation and prediction suggested that genetic variants in this locus might affect overall survival of pancreatic cancer patients by regulating PIK3R1 expression.

Integrative expression quantitative trait locus-based analysis of colorectal cancer identified a functional polymorphism regulating SLC22A5 expression.

Multiple single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have been found to be highly correlated with colorectal cancer (CRC) risk. However, the variants identified thus far only explain a small part of the cases, suggesting the existence of many uncharacterised genetic determinants. In this study, using the multilevel 'omics' data provided in The Cancer Genome Atlas, we systematically performed expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL) analysis for CRC and identified nine SNPs with significant effects on mRNA expression (correlation |r| > 0.3 and FDR < 0.01). Then we conducted a two-stage case-control study consisting of 1528 cases and 1528 controls to examine the associations between candidate SNPs and CRC risk. We found that rs27437 in SLC22A5 was significantly correlated with CRC risk in both stages and the combined study (additive model, OR = 1.31, 95%CI = 1.17-1.47, P = 1.97 × 10-6). eQTL analysis showed that rs27437 GG and GA genotypes were associated with lower expression of SLC22A5 compared with the AA genotype. Dual-luciferase reporter assays confirmed that the G risk allele could decrease the expression of luciferase. SLC22A5 was significantly decreased in CRC tumour tissues compared with adjacent normal tissues, indicating that SLC22A5 may play important roles in CRC, and rs27437 in SLC22A5 might serve as a novel biomarker for early detection and prevention of CRC.